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Veruca Salt’s Louise Post talks new music, Regurgitator and #metoo

Alternative rock legends Veruca Salt are halfway through a tour around the country and singer/guitarist Louise Post took time out of her busy schedule to have a chinwag with us.

Your last album was released in 2015. How did it feel to make an album as the original members of the band, so many years after the first one?

It felt fantastic, like a miracle, a dream come true. None of us ever imagined during the “heinous hiatus”, as we call it, that we would all ever become friends again, much less make another record. And despite the fact that so much time had passed, it was almost like we had never been apart. We fell in just like family who had moved apart for awhile. And we had all grown so much as artists and people, that the best part was learning that we admired one another even more, on a deeper level. The whole thing was just magnificent.

Is there more new material to come?

Absolutely.

What’s different about performing live these days, compared with the early nineties? How have audiences changed? How have you changed?

Every show for us has been a love fest with our fans. We were gone so long, that I think the novelty of us being back together hasn’t worn off…on anybody, ourselves included. Its possible that perhaps people are less judgemental and just there for the love of the music than they were before. We’ve all been through too much to fuck around with that all of that nonsense. I am only interested in everyone in the room having an excellent time. We’re all searching for meaning in life, so let’s have a meaningful evening together, that’s how I feel.

You recently spoke out as part of the #metoo movement. Why is it important that women’s voices are being heard on this issue at this time?

I was actually one of the original 38 women who came forward about James Toback in the LA Times. Now there have been 400. I am so grateful to have given other women courage to come forward and speak their truth. It was time for me to speak mine. It is essential that women feel free to share their story. The silence must end. That is the only way we will have real and lasting change in the systemic and lethal sexism that plagues our planet.

What’s your favourite Australian memory?

I have so many little sweet memories: Having a flat white at a cafe near the beach in Perth, singing and dancing on stage with Regurgitator on “Blubber Boy” in 2005, seeing a wombat cross the road late at night in Tassie in our headlights, buying lavender lotions in Tassie, Grudge Fest, running around that big lake in Melbourne on a cold winter day, Prince of Wales ’97, Paul Berryman, Adelaide 2014, Newcastle 2005, sunset in Sydney, late night hotel parties in Sydney, and my very favorite concert, Livid ’97.

Why Veruca Salt? Why not Augustus Gloop or Violet Beauregarde?

There’s no “assault” in Gloop or Beauregarde. We were interested in the sonic assault of it all. Plus, she’s an ambitious female. She wants it all, and why not?